ethical stem cell research

Ethical Stem Cell Breakthrough! IPSCs Without Genes or Viruses

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Never underestimate the creativity and excellence of our scientists. New research seems to have overcome the difficulties of IPSCs, allowing pluripotent stem cells to be created from normal body cells without using genes or viruses. From the story in the Washington Post: In 2006, researchers [...]

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Ethical Stem Cells Advancing!

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Perhaps the worst things President Obama did when he rescinded President Bush’s ESCR funding policy, was that he also revoked a non controversial Bush order that required the NIH to give funding priority to finding sources of pluripotent stem cells that do not destroy embryos. [...]

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Bioethicists Say IPSCs as Ethically Fraught as ESCR — Baloney

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Stem cell bioethicists apparently have claimed that IPSCs — skin or other cells reprogrammed to be stem cells& — “are as morally fraught” as ESCR — stem cells taken from destroying human embryos. Baloney. ESCR is, by the very way the cells are derived and [...]

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“In the Body” Cell Reprogramming Hope for Treatment of Heart Disease

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC As regenerative medical researchers grow increasingly imaginative, we hear less and less about embryonic stem cell research, and indeed, the meme that it is the “only hope” for suffering patients is now patently absurd. Now, scientists have apparently figured out a way to turn one [...]

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Adult Stem Cell Human Trial Begins to Treat Spinal Cord Injury

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC There have been human trials ongoing around the world using adult stem cells from olfactory tissues to treat paralysis caused by spinal cord injury–most famously by Dr. Carlos Lima (not that most people know it considering the media cricket chirping). In peer reviewed studies, this [...]

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Change of Tide: Former ESC Resarcher Abandons Field For IPSCs

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC The always informative Michael Cook over at Bioedge notes that a former enthusiast and participant in ESCR has abandoned the field to pursue IPSCs. From the post: Amongst scientists who promoted the use of human embryonic stem cells five years ago, in the middle of [...]

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What Happened to (Our Only Hope) Embryonic Stem Cell Research?

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC “The scientists” used to say that embryonic stem cell research provided the primary, perhaps “only” hope for treatments of degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s and spinal cord injury. This hype, willfully shoveled by Big Biotech and spread by its willing accomplices in the media, opened the [...]

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Adult Stem Cells Build Trachea

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Those superior embryonic stem cells are not yet in any human trials, but the adult stem cell successes in humans just keep chugging along. A child has now had his own bone marrow stem cells used to help transplant a new trachea. From the story: [...]

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“Direct Reprogramming:” Mouse Cells Transformed Into Brain Cells

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Holy cow! Scientists have demonstrated that pluripotency may not be necessary to transform cells into other body tissues, meaning that “stem cells” might prove unnecessary in regenerative medicine. In mice, they transformed fibroblasts–cells that construct connective tissue –directly into functional brain cells. From the story: [...]

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The Stem Cell Quest Resumes

Time Magazine’s cover article this week is on Stem Cell Research: The Quest Resumes. You can read it here. It’s basically another “blame it on Bush” piece on the tails of Obama’s “restore science to its rightful place” speech. Sorry, but I hate to mince words. Why would I say such a thing you ask? [...]

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